A grant is helping to provide long-term recovery services for people who were affected by last year’s deadly shooting in Hesston.
The grant is for $225,000 and will pay for counseling services, as well as other needs victims or first responders might have, such as transportation, clothing, food or housing.
A gunman shot and killed three people at Excel Industries and wounded 14 others before he was killed by the chief of police last February.
Harvey County Administrator John Waltner says the community is still healing and needs support.
"We’ve developed a contract with Prairie View here in Newton to provide for those ongoing counseling services that people might need, and we continue to see a significant need for those services," Waltner says.
Waltner says the grant was awarded to SafeHope, a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter.
He says Harvey County and SafeHope are working to create a new resiliency program.
Two people will be hired to get the program started while the county applies for additional grants. The new positions are a program coordinator and a criminal justice advocate.
The grant is funded by the Victims of Crime Act through the Kansas Governor’s Grant Program.
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